California Corrections Department Seeks Input On Inmate Rehab

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is hoping to improve rehab programs for inmates and parolees.

It will host meetings in Los Angeles and Oakland to gather suggestions from the public and organizations that provide substance abuse programs, employment services and academics.

Bill Sessa with CDCR says the realignment program that sends some offenders to local jails has also allowed the state to focus on different rehabilitation programs. “Realignment has created more space inside the prisons so we have room for the rehabilitation programs that we want to place there, whether its literacy classes or other kinds of things that require a separate area,” said Sessa.

Sessa says the department is building re-entry facilities in prisons that will provide rehabilitation for inmates as they near the end of their sentences.

The first meeting is in Los Angeles on Thursday and the second is in Oakland next Tuesday.